Car Pot
Saturday 9/12/17
Cavers: Chris Scaife, Mike Skyrme, Alex Ritchie, Don Miller
We walked up through the snow from Clapham and got to the entrance at about noon. Alex rigged the entrance pitch on the new P-bolts, which are now throughout the cave, using a large knob (of rock) as a back-up. The entrance pitch, for those who have not been there, is perhaps best described as reminiscent of a dry Green Gutter Hole, with dimensions similar to that great cave, but an altogether less aquatic descent.
To get to Baptistry Pitch we squeezed through a descending tube, where we got splashed a bit from the constant drip, drip from the cavern roof. There was more drip, dripping at the bottom of Baptistry Pitch, where there is not quite enough room for four people to gather. The letterbox follows immediately and we all found it easiest to slide through on our sides, then stand up before dropping feet first through the hole. Baptistry Crawl was easy enough, just go through slowly on your side with your helmet off and drag the tackle sacks through on a rope.
The theme for the cave up until Pitch 3 would be best described as: quite tricky section, followed by space not quite large enough for us all to reconvene, followed by quite tricky section, recurring. This enjoyable sequence came to an end after the awkward take off to Pitch 3, best inspected headfirst before lowering off feet first. We all performed admirably at this point, to the best of my recollection.
Straightforward pitches, with several rebelays, brought us to North Craven Passage. We had a wander down and saw some marvellous formations, then headed out. Everything was fine on the way out. I heard some squeals at the top of Pitch 3, but I can’t remember who was making them. It was simple enough to get off the pitch head, as long as you unclip your chest jammer before trying to climb into the squeeze. Obviously. Baptistry Crawl felt a bit more awkward on the way out, but I suppose this is just the cyclic nature of obstacles in caves. You think it’s going to be hard the first time, then it isn’t as hard as you were expecting, so next time you think it’s going to be easy, but it isn’t as easy as you were expecting, and this just continues ad infinitum. For anyone who hasn’t been to Baptistry Crawl, another example of a caving obstacle with this cyclic nature is The Howling in Cueva Fresnedo 2.
Climbing up through the letterbox was also easy enough, as long as you get up fairly high before starting the horizontal part. Someone got his hand jammer very stuck at the top of Baptistry Pitch, but again I can’t remember who it was. I can’t even remember the name for the profession of a person who owns or works in a mill, after whom the aforementioned is named. All I remember is the damned brave and handsome hero who freed the doomed jammer. SRT kits now complete, we exited and walked downhill in the wintry landscape. More snow had fallen while we were underground and Jack Frost was beginning to bite. Very festive.
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